At Founding Farmers, Fields of Green

"Let me tell you a little about our restaurant," a waiter says to a friend and me at the new Founding Farmers (1924 Pennsylvania Ave. NW; 202-822-8783).

Nearly five minutes later, we have yet to place our order. But we know a lot more about the nearly 9,000-square-foot purveyor of "true food & drink" in the International Monetary Fund 2 than when we sat down.

Such as, Founding Farmers is owned by 42,000 American "family farmers." Cocktails are stirred and shaken by an "executive bar chef." The menu in our hands? It's made from recycled paper and soy-based ink.

Actually, Founding Farmers, which is owned by the North Dakota Farmers Union, may be the greenest restaurant in the nation's capital. The lights are low-voltage, the floor is made of reclaimed wood from North Carolina, the drinking water flows from a state-of-the-art purification system, and servers are trained to dispose of trash in one of five ways: glass, plastic, cardboard, food scraps and "landfill" each claim containers of their own, says general manager Ralph DeRose. (Items that cannot be recycled fall into the last category.)

The industry buzz-phrase du jour is "farm to table," and you'll hear those words a lot at Founding Farmers, its name a playful twist on America's Founding Fathers. The decor, which includes lots of natural colors and shelves of big jars of corn, carrots and green beans, drums home the agricultural theme, too.

As for the menu, it's a whopper, weighing in with more than 70 savory dishes alone. Few hankerings are left out. Classics (oysters Rockefeller) are interspersed with comforts (meatloaf) and food fashions (cheese plates, flatbreads and sustainable fish). The Southern pan-fried chicken tastes true to its roots, and though I didn't stop to count, there was definitely a lot of produce in the colorful "17 Vegetable Salad."

Like almost every detail here, desserts, all made on-site, toe the party line: The apples in the apple pie and the carrots in the carrot cake are both listed as "heirloom."

Entrees, $13-$45.